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To: Rodney King

When we start to see kollel students (that's what they call people who spend all day studying) shooting people, then I'll concede that your comment has merit.

Actually, the study that they engage in is extremely rigorous, and far from idleness.

Nevertheless, there are quite a few religious Israelis who do not work, but spend their time studying instead. I believe that this is a difficult social problem for Israel, and that they should combine their study with work. I don't believe that this sort of sociological group exists in Jewish communities anywhere else in the world. Even in Lakewood, NJ, the center of kollel activity in the US, those who study tend to do so for a few years, not for an entire lifetime.

But that's an issue for another thread, I think.


26 posted on 08/04/2005 10:07:04 AM PDT by Piranha
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To: Piranha
Since WHEN is it a CRIME to devote one's entire life to ministry, theology, study of God, to study to be a minister/rabbi! This is the HIGHEST of callings. Catholic Priests, Pastors, Rabbis' this is what Men of God do when they are called by THE ALMIGHTY, they put all aside to study His Word's and minister to others so as to bring others closer to Him. And this to you is a crime comparable to what the terrorists in the training camps are doing??!!!

This is also a distraction/excuse for antisemite/nazis to attack the religious. Shame on you all.
37 posted on 08/04/2005 10:16:54 AM PDT by Esther Ruth (That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the most high over all the earth.)
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To: Piranha; Rodney King

"I believe that this is a difficult social problem for Israel, and that they should combine their study with work."


I very much support the hesder yeshivot, where the men learn part-time & serve in the army. These people to me are the future of Israel & Israeli defense.

As far as kollel . . . I very much support learning the first few years of marriage. I don't know what percentage in Israel actually commit themselves to longer. Of course, the charedi (ultra-Orthodox) communities emphasize learning over everything else, and these communities exist all over Israel, especially Jerusalem.

Certainly, we Jews need Torah scholars. Some people belong there. And they're hardly idle. (Or violent.) Maybe the problem, as Rodney King may have been trying to say, is that the kollel system is being exploited. There are men who use it to stay out of the army, or to get a meal ticket, or, to find a wife.

Kollel life isn't for everyone. Those who don't belong there, shouldn't be there.


82 posted on 08/04/2005 11:10:40 AM PDT by MoochPooch (A righteous person worries about his or her behavior, an extremist about everyone else's.)
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To: Piranha
Nevertheless, there are quite a few religious Israelis who do not work, but spend their time studying instead. I believe that this is a difficult social problem for Israel, and that they should combine their study with work.

So the Israeli government pays them to study all day?
97 posted on 08/04/2005 11:28:19 AM PDT by Righty_McRight
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